#asher x maria

[exoticalmonde]

Arknights Chapter XIII - The Whirlpool That Is Passion (Part III)

Perhaps we are all familiar with this already but I actually spent the time to read it before starting because I didn't want to have yet ANOTHER 'Wow, why did X thing happen?' with Pinkie immediately responding 'Did you read the enemy description?'

WARNING: This post is going to contain a lot of yapping from me about Hoederer and how much I love him and will also have a LOT of spoilers.

13-1 Across the Battlefield's Line

Pinkie: "Dr. Seuss? Like... the one who writes children's books with rhymes?" Me: *Unhappy because from the first moment, I realized that this is Hoederer and he's probably going to start me off with a little trauma and a little loss, a sprinkle of sadness just so I know not to be optimistic about the future*

... I've said it before and I will keep saying it - the history of Sarkaz as a race is so incredibly sad to the point it's a relief that the person you are talking to doesn't actually know who you are because otherwise, they would never treat you with even a smidge of kindness. And in the end, what do you even have to do in a jail cell? He waited around for nothing and got executed.

Of course, not that he had a choice.

---

After Hoederer's introspection we have, what I understood to be, a couple of Sarkaz mercs standing and waiting for commands while trying desperately to get something in their stomachs from what they managed to take steal from around. Including some... very important books perhaps from the library of this mansion.

Calfskin books... I can't decide if that would be more precious than paper.

---

I believe we spoke with Pinkie about this, but it is so immensely sad to see how the Sarkaz race has been in this situation for so long that they actively do not even NEED to be able to read. I can't imagine myself being unable to read, even if it's signs. Letters. How would they otherwise communicate with each other over a long distance? They don't even have families to message sometimes. They probably don't have the paper or means to send them about, since Catastrophe messengers... would probably never be able to take on such messages.

Many of them probably don't have families either. Devastated.

But with this line, it also gives me hope. Sometimes we take the things we have as a given and, at least I, forget that they still have ways of enjoying things by:

Making up stories based on the drawings they see. Which also makes me happy because books with drawings SHOULD be more of a thing, it's so wonderful. I miss it.

Beleaguered Mercenary: [Y'know. If we put houses on the moons, plant our own food, maybe we won't have to keep fighting like this in the future? Maybe something even bigger'll happen, and everyone'll stop wanting to be up in arms?]

He just solved an international crisis with 2 sentences.

Pinkie: "How to solve the problem - we move to the moon." Me: "Multiple even. I forgot they have two moons." Pinkie: "They have one. It was believed that they had two, but one is only a reflection from the barrier." Me: "OH RIGHT!!! I was a common Terran for a second."

---

---

Not that I was endeared to the press in Kazimierz initially after everything in Maria Nearl and Pinus Sylvestris, but for goodness sake... They actually sound like how I imagine the actual press to sound. What they actually do sound like "Shock and awe and make us popular for being the first to write about it."

The things people WITH a press do in comparison to those who need it but do not have it. Perfect way to pace the story, I'm so happy chapter 13 came out.

Have I mentioned that already?

---

SHE IS GOING TO LEITHANIEN!!!!!

---

Crying and sobbing.

---

---

I don't even know what to think about Trillby Asher anymore. Because I very recently finished the Kal'tsit and Passenger story, I kind of know that things are NOT going well with the Emperor's Blades... To see them show up again is giving me wild anxiety because we already know that they are super unstable and they can cause a catastrophe just by showing up.

What even is your purpose? Why are you here?

What even is the point of this, I don't know, but we're saving it in case it shows up again. 11, 29, 1 (code word) I wish this was translatable into English, frankly, your alphabet doesn't have 29 symbols.

HAH! At around this point I was like "OH MY GOSH IS THIS A COLLAPSAL WHAT DO YOU MEAN BLACK SNOW" and then Panko deadpans 'We have seen this before somewhere else' and I realized.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[liviavanrouge]

Vlad x Livia daughter

Layena Sakurai Vanrouge

Nickname[s]: Yaya(By Vlad), Yena(By Silver, Lilia), Mini Beastie(By Malleus and Maleficia), Baby Rose(By Vlad), Mini Hunter(By Leona and Falena), Lala(By others)

Birthday: February 20th

Species: Night Fae

Age: 3-10

~~~

Family-

Great Grandparent(s): Lumion, Scone, Spencer, Mandrake, Tarza, Mary, Honey

Grandparent(s): Thea, Lilia, Rosalie, Ambert

Great Uncle(s): Cobra, Wolfsbane, Duke, Benjamin, Lilac, Jalor, Larkson, Jun, Henry

Great Aunt(s): River, Springlily, Dew, Harla, Duchess, Sierra, Vinaya

Uncle(s): Dylan/Andro, Felix, Crimson, Cap, Juniper, Ralph, Golden, Silver, Shadow, Kuro, Copper, Jasper, Wolf, Circuit, Iguana, Crowley, Dusk, Diaval, Tanwen, Ryoko, Zurden, Murdock, Darson, Owl, Anab, Joax, Kina

Aunts: Silk, Lavender, Maria, Arianna, Ozzie, Izzie, Tiki, Turtle, Lily, Natalie, Sacha, Moon, Tukla/Tuk, Helen, Ella, Meena, Jubilee, Willowbrook, Kona

Cousin(s): Toroune, Rio, Maron, Marianna, Asher, Alan, Fidget, Vidya, Alan, Jabarri, Noalin, Barklin, Snake, unnamed cousins

Godmother: Minako( @queen-of-twisted)

~~~~

Personality: Layena is an open and hyperactive child who enjoys time with her family. She tends to be clingy with certain people, especially her godmother, grandfather and Malleus. As she grows up she does become more independent, being a princess when out in public then being herself when in private. She's affectionate and not afraid to show off how smart she can really be when someone doubts her intelligence. She doesn't tolerate disrespect towards her family and pulls her mother and grandfathers signature glare on whoever is speaking nonsense.

~~~~

Trivia:

-Layena like her mother has special tastes and is picky about most food

-She picks up feint emotion sensing from her mother

-Lilia states that Layena tends to be forgetful despite being so smart

-Layena enjoys vacations in in the Afterglow Savanna or the Rose Kingdom

~~~~

"I didn't have the best life growing up, my mother passed when I was three and my father vanished on the battlefield. I stopped feeling most emotions until Livia came to me, followed by our baby. Layena Sakurai Vanrouge. I won't let her experience the same pain I did, I'll always be around for her when she needs me, I won't leave her side even when she's all grown up. I want to see her smile and hear her call my name. No matter what, I'll do what I can to protect my baby....my sweet Layana" -Vlad

[nightmaredarlingvn]

Nightmare darling

Visual novel

Rules

🌙If you’re a minor please don’t interact with my content that is 18+, especially since the base content won’t be 18+ so you can still get content.

✨ Ageless in bio(either put your age/birthday in your bio, or you can send me a message telling me your age, if none of those I’ll block you)

🌙Please be patient with me

✨do not trace or AI if you want fanart of my character or oc x canon i will be very disappointed

About

✨About Mc's struggling life and after stress around real world

Dealing with boss target on you

Break up by Mc girlfriend

Worry about payment of rent

Until Mc falling asleep into dream world

Meeting two nightmarent Kuromi and mitsuki

Helping you forget about reality the dream world of no worries about anything..~

Even having nightmare world of suffering

Guilty and tortured owner of dark carnival akuma~

Mc feeling comfortable trusting Mitsuki and kuromi

They not real

And they always love you ~

Willing mc making correct choices ?~

Warning

Stalking

manipulate

Kidnapping

Gore

Soft nsfw

Suicide

mental illness

Drugs

Tags character

#🌙Mitsuki

#✨Kuromi

#🩸Akuma

#🔪Aiden

#💀Asher

#🥀karla

#🩰ayama

#🔹maria

fanart

Free to tag me

Since i love see your artwork

#NightmareDarlingfanart

#🌙Nightmaredarlingfanart

EXTRA LINKS/INFO

I'm very actives on twitter

Zippergoth~

And Tumblr usually i post all my oc and life

Name dollygothic~

[solastarkwaters]

SCHNITTPUNKT - The Original Soundtrack - SIDE B

i. Growing Pains — Maria Mena // ii. Hospital — Lydia // iii. High Hopes — Kodaline // iv. Half Light — BANNERS // v. One Call Away — Charlie Puth // vi. To the Stars — Tyler Bates // vii. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) — Gabrielle Aplin // viii. New Year’s Day — Taylor Swift // ix. Glamorous — Fergie // x. Californian Soil — London Grammar // xi. Still Learning — Halsey // xii. On The Ground — ROSÉ // xiii. Supalonely — Benee // xiv. Migraine — twenty one pilots // xv. Totally Fine — Alan Silvestri // xvi. California Dreamin' — Scala // xvii. Wrecked — Imagine Dragons // xviii. Sweet Child O' Mine — Guns N' Roses // xix. Revealed — Henry Jackman // xx. Hall of Fame — The Script // xxi. Scream My Name — Tove Lo // xxii. It Takes Two — Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock // xxiii. The Baby Monitor Protocol — Michael Giacchino // xxiv. You Need To Calm Down — Taylor Swift // xxv. Gold — Imagine Dragons // xxvi. Supergirl — Reamonn // xxvii. deep end — Fousheé // xxviii. Shake It Out (The Weeknd Remix) — Florence + The Machine // xxix. I’m Tired (Bonus Track) — Labrinth // xxx. Glitter & Gold — Barns Courtney // xxxi. Maya’s Theme — Christophe Beck // xxxii. Turn Up the Faders — Nathan Asher and the Infantry // xxxiii. Philadelphia — alt-J // xxxiv. this is me trying — Taylor Swift // xxxv. The Cave — Mumford & Sons // xxxvi. The Darkness That You Fear — The Chemical Brothers // xxxvii. DNA — Ludovico Einaudi // xxxviii. Make You Feel My Love — Sleeping At Last [listen | read]

[abwwia]

Maria Verelst (1680–1744) (attributed to) | Portrait of Charlotte Butler (1679–1725), Wife of Charles, 4th Lady Cornwallis, 1700, oil on canvas, H 127 x W 102 cm | Photo credit: Mark Asher Photography / Historic England Archive

Maria Verelst (1680–1744) was an early 18th-century English painter best known for her portraits. Via Wikipedia

[extasiswings]

Dealer's choice from your most recent prompt list: Garcy or Asher/Maria, 12 or 35.

In the three months that follow Maria Tompkins nearly losing her son to a bee sting, only for him to be miraculously saved by a stranger, two things happen:  1)  the chief engineer at Lockman finds the sketches she keeps at her desk and promotes her, and 2) a man moves into the empty apartment next door.  The first of these events does little but increase her work hours and her pay.  The second...well.

It takes another month from the time he moves in for Maria to officially meet Asher Flynn.  But that doesn’t mean she learns nothing—her landlady is exceedingly prone to gossip after all and more than happy to inform Maria of her new tenant’s name, the fact that he’s single, and that he has an accent that probably means he’s a communist, dear, but he’s a very nice man nonetheless, and easy on the eyes.  When they do meet, it happens by chance, Maria sitting out on the balcony after putting Gabriel to bed when Asher comes out to smoke.

He nods politely at her when he notices her presence, then turns away as he flicks open a lighter with nimble fingers, jawline sharpening as he inhales.  Maria knows she should look away.  Or simply go inside.  But there’s something strange about him, something familiar, something that makes her not want to look away that goes beyond the fact that he’s undeniably attractive.  After a moment, he looks back and catches her staring.  Maria tries not to blush as she takes a sip of her water.

“Have—”  Maria clears her throat when the word catches.  Asher raises an eyebrow.  “Have we met before?”  

A slow smile curves his lips as he turns his full attention on her.  

“I try to make a habit of remembering when I meet beautiful women,” he replies.  “So, no, I don’t believe we have.  Asher Flynn.”

“I know.”  Her cheeks flame as his smile widens, eyes dancing as he takes another drag from his cigarette and rests his elbows on the balcony.  “I mean...Mrs. Williams told me your name.”

“You have me at a disadvantage then,” Asher says.  “It seems only fair that you should tell me yours.  Even the playing field.”

His accent is also familiar, a thicker version of what curled the tongue of the man who saved Gabriel.  Maria doesn’t know what that means, if anything, doesn’t know if she should be cautious or curious or comforted by it.  

But.

It’s been a long time since a man has looked at her with desire and made her want to look back.

“Maybe you should ask Mrs. Williams,” Maria replies.  Asher laughs.

“I could.  Or we could just cut out the middleman.”

Maria hums and looks up at the stars for a moment.  But finally, she cuts her eyes back to him.  

“Maria,”  she acknowledges.  “Maria Tompkins.”

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance...Maria.”  

She opens her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a quiet call.

“Mama?”

“Yes, darling?” Maria calls back over her shoulder.  

“I had a bad dream.”

Maria looks back at her balcony companion to find him watching her thoughtfully.  

“My son,”  she explains.  “I should probably…”

“Far be it from me to keep you,”  Asher says.  “I imagine we’ll find a way to meet again. We are, after all, only a few steps away.”  

“Goodnight...Mr. Flynn.”

She leaves him with the briefest of smiles and tries not to think about the way her pulse races when she walks away.  

***

He’s waiting for her outside the building in the morning,  Maria doesn’t notice him at first, but he pushes off the wall when she passes, easily catching her with his stride.  

“Can I help you, Mr. Flynn?”  She asks, keeping her eyes straight ahead.

“As a matter of fact you can,”  Asher replies.  “You can have dinner with me.”

Maria laughs and glances over at him—between the sharp suit and confident smile, she would bet just about anything he doesn’t hear the word no often.  

“We just met last night,”  she points out.  “I know next to nothing about you.”

“All the more reason to have dinner,”  he says.  “I hear it’s an excellent way to get to know someone.”

“I have a child.”

“I love children.”

“He has a babysitter who needs to be home at a reasonable hour.”

“I’ll have you back by curfew.”

Maria bites back a smile and stops, crossing her arms as she stares him down.

“I’m an engineer,” she says.  “I spend my days designing rockets and jet engines, and I make no apology for that, nor am I the least inclined toward dumbing myself down to soothe men’s egos.”

Asher’s smile only widens as he takes a step into her space.

“And I find that...enchanting.”

Maria’s breath catches at the proximity, at the way their eyes catch and hold, the sounds of the street falling away for a moment.  And then she remembers herself and steps back.

“So?”  Asher asks.  “Is that a yes?”

“...no,”  Maria replies as she continues on her way, pausing after a few steps to glance back over her shoulder.  

“But you may walk me to work,”  she adds.

The disappointment on Asher’s face swiftly changes to delight as he falls into step with her again.

“What shall we discuss?”

“Who says we’re going to discuss anything?”  Maria shoots back, finally unable to fully prevent her smile from breaking through.  “Perhaps I’d prefer to spend the walk in silence.”

“But then you wouldn’t have let me stay,”  Asher replies.

“I can still change my mind on that, you know.”

Asher mimes zipping his mouth shut—they both manage for about half a block before they break into laughter.  

“Books,”  she allows.  “We can discuss books.”

“Definitely a woman after my own heart.”

Maria lets the comment slide without a response, but can’t quite help the way her cheeks flush.  But if Asher notices, he doesn’t tease, instead heading straight off on a tangent about Jane Austen.

Full of surprises, this man, Maria thinks.  But she picks up the thread as soon as he stops to breathe and continues on.

***

It’s strange how easy it is.  Falling in love.  At first, Maria doesn’t recognize it for what it is—in loss and grief, she locked all of that away when she took off her wedding ring—but after a few weeks of companionable journeys to and from Lockman Industries, after late night discussions on the balcony, after inventing excuses to see more of Asher Flynn, she catches a glimpse of his profile in the dying light one evening and just thinks—

Oh.  It’s you, then.

It happened without planning, without thought.  Somewhere between Austen and Dostoyevsky and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he simply...stole into her heart without her noticing.  Perhaps she should be upset.

She isn’t.

“Gabriel was invited to a sleepover tomorrow night,”  Maria says, entirely losing the thread of whatever they were discussing before.  But Asher doesn’t even blink at the transition.

“Oh?  Is he excited?”

“Yes,” she acknowledges.  “Although it’ll be...strange.”

“Strange?”

Maria wets her lips absently and catches his eyes across the balcony.  “Well...he won’t be here.  I’ll be..alone.”

Asher’s eyes spark before he looks away, rubbing at the back of his neck.  

“That could be lonely,”  he says.

“It could.”

“...would you like company?”

“...yes.”

And so, he walks her home the next night.  And instead of continuing on to his door, he lingers.

His hand ghosts the edge of her waist as she fumbles with the key in the lock, and she shivers as she finally opens the door and steps inside.

“Maria…”  Asher is so close that she can feel the heat of him at her back, and when his hand comes up to brush her arm, it takes nothing at all to make her turn around and sink into his embrace.

God, but she’d nearly forgotten what it was like to even be held.

“Maria,”  he repeats, voice rough as her fingers curl into his shirt.  “What do you want?”

The sun, the moon, the stars,  she thinks.  Fate and time and everything, everything, everything.

She doesn’t say that.  Instead, she leans up on her toes until she’s inches from his lips.

“Kiss me?”  Maria asks.

And because he won’t refuse her anything, he does.  Again, and again, and again until morning.

***

“Mama, who is this?”  Gabriel asks, when Maria picks him up the next day, Asher at her side.

“This is Mr. Flynn, sweetheart,”  she reminds her son.  “You know him.  He lives next door.”

“It’s very nice to meet you,”  Asher says, crouching down to Gabriel’s level.  “Your mother talks about you a lot.”

Gabriel narrows his eyes, studying the older man with suspicion.  “You talk funny.”

“Gabriel!”

Asher only laughs.  “You know, to me, so do you,”  he replies.

The boy considers that for a moment, then seems to accept it.

“Do you like airplanes?”  He asks.

“I do,” Asher acknowledges solemnly.

“Okay.”  A beat, and then Gabriel grabs his hand before turning the rest of his focus on his mother.  “Mama, did you know that Jeremy has two model trains?  He showed them to me last night and they were so cool—”

Maria catches Asher’s eyes over the top of Gabriel’s head as they make their way down the street and her son continues to prattle on.

She smiles.

***

Of course, nothing can stay perfect forever.

Asher gets the letter two months after that.  Marching orders.  Back to Yugoslavia.  Back behind the Iron Curtain.

Away from her.

“Come with me.”

“You can’t be serious.”  Maria hugs herself around the waist as she stares at him from across his near-empty apartment.  

“I’m perfectly serious,”  Asher insists.  “Maria, I love you.  I love Gabriel.  Come with me and stay with me.  Come with me...and marry me.”

“I can’t just—”

“Picture it,” he interrupts.  “Please. Just for a moment. We would be together as a family, maybe even a bigger one after a little while.  And there would be a house full of books and laughter and love, and at night...at night I would come home to you, and we would sleep with the windows open, wrapped around each other.  And outside the stars would be so bright you could count them by the thousands.  Maria…”

She thinks about it, about what it would mean, everything she would be giving up...but everything she would be gaining too.  

And suddenly, strangely, she thinks of months before.  Of the tall, dark man with the sad eyes.  The one who saved her son and looked so much like Asher. 

The one who looked at her like he loved her.

The one who wanted her to be happy.

And she wonders if this was always supposed to happen this way.  If fate or destiny or God brought her here, to make this choice, to say—

“Yes.”

Yes.

[qqueenofhades]

"And when he comes home years later, she cries again because he’s more like Asher than ever, scars littering his body and shadows behind his eyes, a soldier and a man and everything she didn’t want for him." (I'm too lazy to write it but since we're all up in our Feelings tonight...)

Paris, France

August 30, 1997

There have been sirens droning for hours outside, on and on and on, as Maria Tompkins Flynn’s hand shakes where she tries to hold her drafting pencil, to put the final touches on the mechanical engineering plans she is putting together for her guest lectures at the Sorbonne. She tries to concentrate, but she can’t, and finally she throws it down, gets to her feet, and walks out into the dim living room. Picks up the remote and switches on the TV, as if there might be some explanation for all the ruckus outside, just in time to see an aerial photograph of a crumpled black car, a sea of flashing lights, motorcycles and cameras, and a scrolling news ticker. LA PRINCESSE DIANA DANS IN UN ACCIDENT DE VOITURE, the screen reads. CONDITION INCONNUE.

At that, Maria’s breath goes out of her a little, and she has to sit down hard. She hopes the poor woman’s all right – it’s not fair what that family has done to her, driving her out of her homeland and her life like this, hounded at every waking instant, and Maria, who knows a little of being forced into exile, losing everything, unable to go back, cannot help but sympathize. She glances out through the fluttering gauze curtains, then looks down at her shaking hands – she is not that elderly, she is only fifty-two, but age seems to have nothing to do with it. She has been living here since her adopted homeland crumbled into factionalism and war six years ago, and took her son’s heart with it. I have to do this, Mama, he insisted, during the rage and desperation of their fighting, as she gave everything she had trying (and failing) to convince her fifteen-year-old son not to enlist in the army. I have to go. Dad would have wanted it.

(How dare he use his father against her like that, Maria thinks, twisting the wedding ring that has worn a groove into her pale, fragile finger, the ring she has not taken off for ten years. It is a decade so close to the day – September 14, 1987, five days after Garcia’s twelfth birthday – when she kissed her husband for the last time. Asher said that this would be a brief mission, he should be home by Sunday, and then vanished into the ether. The KOS, the Yugoslavian intelligence service – there is no more Yugoslavia, but there are all of its secrets – is still so heavily classified that Maria has never been able to find out where he was sent, what he was doing, or how he met his fate. She and Asher agreed that he would tell their son what his job really was when Garcia was sixteen. Instead, she has been left in limbo, and he still does not know the truth.)

Maria sits down, gets up, wonders if she should turn the television on yet, if Princess Diana is doing better. They must have taken her to the hospital, truly? Her poor sons. They are teenagers, they are not ready to lose their mother. William is fifteen years old, isn’t he? The thought gives Maria a jolt. That is too young, too young to lose a mother, too young to fight, too young to go to war, and it is how old her own son was, when she lost him, in some demented reverse, some funhouse mirror, down the rabbit hole, gone and gone and gone. She has not heard from him in almost six years, since he enlisted in the HV, then sent a jumbled letter about going onto Bosnia. As if one war was not enough, he must find another? He survived one, he runs headlong into the next, and –

The knock, when it comes, almost makes Maria spill her tea. She was not expecting visitors tonight, and she wonders if it is her neighbor, Helene, asking if she has seen the TV. She is not sure whether to answer it, but it seems uncharitable not to, and she makes her way into the front hall, unchaining the deadbolt. The walls and floors in old Paris apartments are very thin; she can often hear every sound from down the hall, and tries to walk quietly. She opens the door an inch. “Oui? Comment vous – ?”

And then, she stops. Because she cannot be seeing right, she is afraid to believe, some part of her thinks it must be a ghost, on this night that feels so thick with bad omens already. Because he’s standing there in the corridor, in a pullover sweater and battered blue jeans, his hair thick and dark and unruly and badly in need of a trim, a healing scrape of some kind on his face and the slightest hint of silver by his temples. He is ten days away from his twenty-second birthday. He looks at her – looks well down, he has his father’s height and bearing and nose and eyes, and for a moment Maria’s heart stopped for an altogether different reason, that faint and foolish hope forever that her lover will come home to her – and says, “Hello, Mama.”

Maria stares at him, stares at her son, her living, breathing son, and discovers that her own breath is shriveled in her throat. She makes only a wheezing sound as if her wind has been knocked out. “Garcia?”

He ducks his head, almost abashed. It’s a boy’s gesture, but nothing else about him looks like a boy, no matter how young he is in years. He carries a dirty duffel bag and his knuckles are battered. He says, “Can I come in?”

Maria steps aside by reflex to admit him into the apartment, too dazed to protest. He moves as if he’s uncomfortable in an enclosed space, glancing up sharply when lights cross the wall as if it might be a sniper’s sight. If he is aware of Princess Diana’s accident, he does not say so. He perches on the couch, Maria goes to make another cup of tea on the stunned thought that one should do that when one’s son appears out of the clear blue sky, returns and hands it to him. Garcia nods his thanks and takes it, sipping tersely. She stands there, staring at him, his bent head, his careful motionlessness. At last she says, “Sarajevo.”

He looks up at her, hearing the recrimination. The decision he made to go to Bosnia even when the war in Croatia was done, rather than come back here, to safety, or even stay in the new republic the people had carved out. He looks apologetic, but not guilty. “I needed to,” he says simply. “It was not over.”

Maria looks at him, that thousand-yard stare in his young eyes, the way his index finger on his right hand curls as if around the ghost of a trigger. To look at your son and know beyond all doubt that he has killed people, possibly more than he can count, makes her want to fall like a leaf on the wind, to curl up, to crumple. Since he was so injudicious as to use Asher against her when he enlisted, she is almost tempted to do it again now. Asher was a very proud Croat, he never forgot that. Yet he was – at least while Tito lived – fiercely loyal to the Yugoslavian experiment, the ideal of a unified Slav utopia, a better country for all the people, no matter their race or religion or ethnicity. But after Tito died in 1980, the economy began to crumble, and the country slowly splintered, Asher grew increasingly disillusioned with the Serb-dominated leadership, became more and more sympathetic to the idea of Croatian independence. Maria cannot think he would ever have agreed to send his teenage son to war, would have done everything to forestall it. But Asher himself joined the KOS at the age of nineteen. She is afraid there is too much wildness in their blood, these beautiful, haunted, passionate Flynn boys who can never stay blind to injustice for long. She is too afraid that her beloved husband would not, if Garcia had insisted upon it, have ultimately said no.

Garcia sips his tea a few moments more. Maria moves to sit next to him, as the sirens and lights continue to go by outside, and she sees a muscle move in his cheek. “Sarajevo,” he says, as if continuing their earlier conversation. “There are rumors that Kosovo is going next.”

At that, Maria feels the tiny bloom of hope that opened inside her begin to crumble into dust. She knows what that means, even as she was somehow clinging to the foolish idea that he had come back to give up the war, to stay. It means he is going back. It means that is the next battle, and he means to be there. What is this? Some brief visit to ensure she sees his face one last time before he runs back like Asher, if he disappears as well, if he –

“You could stay,” Maria says nonetheless. “Here.”

Garcia shakes his head. “I can’t.”

“Three wars, then? Three? You’ve already had the one! That was for your – for our home, and you won it! Then Sarajevo, now Kosovo! Those aren’t even yours! Garcia, you don’t – ”

“Dad would have,” Garcia says stubbornly. “Dad would have understood.”

“Don’t you dare speak about your father like that to me.” Maria’s blood burns hotly in her cheeks, her heart close to smashing. Asher would never have supported the brutalities of the JNA, the Serbian atrocities, even in the name of holding together a Yugoslavia already lost, but she cannot stand to admit to Garcia that he is right. “How dare you even – ”

And with that, before they have ever even said hello to each other, before there has been any recompense for those six lost years, her grief and her frustration and her heartache burns through Maria like a poison, and she does something she instantly regrets, would give anything to take back. She raises her hand and slaps her son, her sweet boy, her child, across the face.

For a moment, Garcia looks stunned, and then as if he might rage. But what he does instead is even worse. His face slowly crumples, his head falls, and his eyes well up with tears. He must have taken all manner of worse punishment in the war, in the wars, and stood them without flinching, but at that, he breaks. He clenches his jaw, as if trying to stop the sob rising out of him, but he fails. His chin quavers, and he lets out a sound that Maria would burn down the whole world never to have heard him make, to never have been the cause of it. “My baby,” she whispers, horrified, thinking he will shove her away, but instead he falls into her arms, his face buried in her shoulder. “Sweetheart, Garcia, Garcia, my baby, no. No, no, no. Sweetheart, no.”

Garcia cries silently for almost five minutes, all the tears he has not shed before, for all the mortar shells and blasted buildings, the dead friends and the butchered civilians, the horrors that have aged him a hundred years already. It shakes and shakes out of him and Maria cries and coos and rocks him in her arms, though he is still twice the size that she is. She kisses his tumbled hair, like she did when he was very small and still prone to climb into his parents’ bed when he had a nightmare, sometimes when his father was there and more often when he was not. Maria rubs his back and cradles his head and kisses his face all over, as he clings to her arm and keeps sobbing in a way he can never do before the others, and she tries to sing him a lullaby, but her own throat is too choked up to manage. Her tears fall thick and fast into his hair. She feels as she did when the officer came to the door and told her in stilted English that he was very sorry, her husband would not be coming home. She wants to fall down and let her bones melt to dust and become one with the earth and sky.

Garcia cries until he is spent, as Maria notes a whitish scar braided on the back of his shoulder and does not ask, as her sore heart hurts even more. Then he rests there without a sound, limp and heavy, a toddler asking to be carried back to bed, and she gets him up – her hands do not shake at all this time – and guides him back to her room and puts him on her bed, and sits by him until he falls asleep, which takes only moments. She looks at the lights of Paris on the face of her sleeping child, the one thing left in the world that she loves, having lost two husbands and a son and two homelands, and wonders if you ever find the way out of it, this huge dark echoing place, this breathless grief. She smoothes a faint furrow out from between his brows. He does not wake.

(Garcia goes to Kosovo.)

(Princess Diana dies.)

[randomontheinternet]

Our Life Voiced Names A-Z

I heard some people wanted a list of the voiced names so far, so I took the time to copy down all of the names from A to Z. The names are under the cut to not clutter.

A

Aaron

Aayria

Abby

Ace

Adrienne

Aeon

Aeriie

Aesilng

Aga

Aine

Aisha

Aisling

AJ

Aki

Akira

Akua

Alaina

Alex

Alexis

Alfonzo

Ali

Alice

Alijah

Alison

Alvis

Alyssa

Amanda

Amber

Amelia

Amy

Anaïs

Andra

Andre

Andrew

Andri

Angel

Angela

Angie

Anima

Anita

Anna

Anna-Maria

Anne

Annie

Annika

Anthony

Antoine

Aoife

Arabella

Aram

Ari

Arielle

Arrow

Arthur

Arturo

Arty

Ash

Asher

Ashla

Ashleigh

Ashlyn

Aspen

Asteria

Astrid

Athena

Atticus

Audrey

Aura

Aurora

Austin

Autumn

Ayanna

B

Barbie

Basil

Beach

Beata

Bec

Becky

Bee

Belen

Ben

Bethany

Bia

Blue

Bobbi

Bonnie

Boyd

Braden

Brian

Briana

Brielle

Brittany

Brooke

Brooklyn

Bryony

Bunni

C

Cadence

Cai

Cam

Cami

Cara

Carmine

Casey

Cassidy

Cato

Cecilia

Cecily

Celestia

Cerise

Chance

Chantal

Chara

Charlie

Charmaine

Chelle

Chris

Christie

Christina

Chuck

Ciara

Ciaran

Cillian

Claire

Cléo

Coco

Col

Conny

Cookie

Cora

Cori

Corrina

Cristal

Cristina

Crystal

Cygnus

Cyina

D

Dan

Dani

Dante

Daphne

Dara

Dayton

December

Denny

Deremy

Desiree

Desmond

Destiny

Devyn

Dexter

Diamond

Diana

Diane

Dorothy

Duane

E

Eddie

Eden

Elaine

Elda

Eleanor

Elegance

Elena

Elenus

Elissa

Eliza

Elle

Ellie

Eluned

Elysa

Ember

Emilith

Emily

Emma

Emmy

Enjel

Ennae

Eric

Erica

Erii

Erin

Ester

Eve

Evren

Ezekiel

Ezra

F

Felicia

Felicity

Felix

Fianna

Finist

Finn

Flynn

Francesco

Franklin

G

Gabrielle

Gaby

Gail

Garnet

Gavin

Gemma

Genevieve

Gerry

Gigi

Gin

Giulia

Glen

Grace

Gray

Gwen

H

Haley

Halima

Hana

Hannah

Hanni

Haru

Hazel

Heather

Helena

Héloïse

Hime

Hiyori

Hollis

Holly

Hon

Hunter

I

Ian

Iga

Illidan

Imani

Irene

Iris

Isabel

Ishan

Isla

Isolde

Issa-Kabeer

Ivy

J

J.R.

Jacob

Jade

Jaden

Jaiet

Jake

Jan

Janice

Jas

Jasmine

Jasper

Jatin

Javi

Jax

Jay

Jaycie

Jazz

Jeannie

Jeff

Jemma

Jen

Jennifer

Jenny

Jess

Jesse

Jessica

Jessinia

Jill

Jinx

Joanie

Joanna

Joelle

Johanna

Jordan

Jordanna

Joseph

Josh

Josie

Joy

Juleyma

Juli

Julia

Julianne

Julien

June

Jupiter

Justina

K

Kaden

Kai

Kala

Kaleton

Kalina

Karat

Karen

Kat

Kate

Katelyn

Katrina

Kay

Kel

Kellie

Ken

Kendi

Kenton

Kevin

Kia

Kiara

Kiba

Kie

Kien

Kim

Kimberly

Kimory

Kira

Kirsty

Kisa

Kit

Knox

Kodie

Kozmo

Kra

Kristen

Kyan

L

Laëtitia

Lanz

Laura

Lauren

Lavender

Leaf

Leann

Leina

Leo

Leon

Leslie

Letty

Levi

Lex

Lexi

Lia

Libbi

Lidia

Lilith

Lillian

Lily

Lindsay

Lindt

Linley

Lisette

Liss

Livia

Lotus

Lucy

Luke

Luna

Lyla

Lyric

Lvsander

Lysella

M

Maddy

Madeline

Mae

Maggy

Mahari

Mai

Maia

Mali

Mallory

Malyia

Mandy

Marcel

Marcella

Marcia

Marco

Margaret

Mari

Maria

Marianne

Mariposa

Maris

Marissa

Marlene

Martina

Mary

Mary-Elizabeth

Mason

Matina

Matthew

Maus

Max

Maya

McKenzie

Megan

Mel

Melanie

Melissa

Melly

Melody

Merlin

Mia

Mich

Michael

Michelle

Michiko

Mickie

Mikaela

Mikey

Mimi

Mina

Minette

Mini

Mira

Miranda

Mishal

Missy

Mizuki

Molly

Monica

Mordaine

Morgan

Morgana

Moriah

Morina

Muriel

Mykaela

N

Nakira

Nancie

Natalie

Natasha

Nathaniel

Neelam

Nessa

Nessi

Niamh

Nicole

Nier

Night

Nikki

Nina

Noah

Noe

Noel

Nui

O

Oda

Oliver

Olivia

Ollie

Omar

Onyx

Opal

Ori

Osmond

Oumou

P

Paige

Parvati

Patience

Patrice

Patricia

Patrick

Peter

Philippe

Phoebe

Phoenix

Polly

Priya

Q

Querriana

Quinn

Quinniece

R

Rachel

Rain

Rainie

Ran

Randi

Raphaël

Raven

Rayne-Beau

Rayraye

Rebecca

Reed

Rei

Reina

Rémi

Ren

Revan

Rhiannon

Rhi-Rhi

Rhyne

Rika

Riley

Rini

Riona

Risa

Riven

Riza

Robyn

Rory

Rosa

Rose

Rosetta

Rosie

Rowan

Runa-Lucienne

Ruth

Ryan

Rye

S

Sabrina

Sage

Salem

Sam

Samantha

Sammi

Sandy

Sara

Saro

Sasha

Savannah

Season

Selena

Selkie

Serena

Shaelei

Shakyra

Shay

Shayla

Sheena

Shelbie

Sid

Sienna

Silvia

Simmy

Simon

Sinead

Skye

Skyla

Skylar

Soffia

Soleil

Sonja

Sora

Soraya

Stacey

Star

Stefan

Stevie

Stella

Steph

Stephanie

Stephen

Story

Susan

Suzy

Sydney

T

Tama

Tammy

Tanisha

Tanya

Taylor

Ted

Teddy

Terra

Terrence

Terry

Thomas

Thorgunna

Tiago

Tida

Tobias

Toki

Tokiko

Tom

Tommy

Tomoko

Trey

Tricia

Tristan

Twila

Tye

U

Uma

Undyne

V

V

Vaeril

Van

Vandy

Vaughn

Vaylin

Velise

Venla

Vera

Verly

Verv

Vesper

Vi

Vicky

Victor

Vina

Vincent

Violette

Vivi

Vivienne

W

Wendy

Westley

Whispthera

Winnie

Wonder

X

Xander

Xavier

Xiri

Y

Yasmin

Ylthin

Yon

Yoonie

Yuki

Yukino

Yuli

Yvette

Yvonne

Z

Zachary

Zack

Zae

Zariyah

Zayla

Zen

Ziya

Zo

Zoey

[met-american-paintings]

The Beeches, Asher Brown Durand, 1845, American Paintings and Sculpture

Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914 Size: 60 3/8 x 48 1/8 in. (153.4 x 122.2 cm) Medium: Oil on canvas

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10786

[lilychestnut]

Fictional ESTJ pairings with every other MBTI type

I did a version of this for ISFJ here with my methodology and some notes! Enjoy! I’m going to attempt to eventually get around to doing this for every Myers Briggs type. Both canon and noncanon pairings are included!

ESTJ x ESTJ: Jerry/Elaine (Seinfeld), Hermione/Draco (Harry Potter series), Pansy/Draco (Harry Potter series), Guzman/Lucrecia (Elite)

ESTJ x ESFJ: Charlotte/Dan (Lucifer), Eric/Tami (Friday Night Lights), Chris/Cassie (Euphoria), Robb/Talisa (Game of Thrones), Fred/Daphne (Scooby Doo), Shirley/Kevin (The Haunting of Hill House), Maria/Angel (Dexter), Catra/Scorpia (She-Ra)

ESTJ x ESFP: Cordelia/Buffy (Buffyverse), Cordelia/Doyle (Buffyverse), Blair/Serena (Gossip Girl), Hermione/Ron (Harry Potter series), Tiana/Naveen (The Princess and the Frog), Tom/Daisy (The Great Gatsby), Veronica/Kevin (Shameless), Michaela/Asher (How to Get Away With Murder), Mini/Alo (Skins)

ESTJ x ESTP: Blair/Chuck (Gossip Girl), Hermione/Ginny (Harry Potter books), Quinn/Santana (Glee), Quinn/Noah (Glee), Rosalie/Emmett (Twilight), Cersei/Jaime (Game of Thrones), Leia/Han (Star Wars universe), Claire/Owen (Jurassic World), Sif/Thor (MCU), Maria/James (Dexter)

ESTJ x ISTJ: Dwight/Angela (The Office), Prue/Andy (Charmed), Melissa/Ian (Pretty Little Liars), Emily/Richard (Gilmore Girls), Guzman/Nadia (Elite)

ESTJ x ISFJ: Paige/Emily (Pretty Little Liars), Lucius/Narcissa (Harry Potter series), Wesley/Angel (Buffyverse), Cordelia/Angel (Buffyverse), Sokka/Suki (ATLA), Sokka/Yue (ATLA)

ESTJ x ISTP: Wesley/Gunn (Buffyverse), Joss/John (Person of Interest), Lucas/Max (Stranger Things), Cheryl/Toni (Riverdale), Holly/John (Die Hard), Li Shang/Mulan (Mulan), Jack/Kate (Lost)

ESTJ x ISFP: Blair/Nate (Gossip Girl), Hermione/Harry (Harry Potter series), Draco/Harry (Harry Potter series), Quinn/Finn (Glee), Quinn/Joe (Glee), Katie/Freddie (Skins)

ESTJ x ENFJ: Catra/Adora (She-Ra), Vivian/Elle (Legally Blonde), Melissa/Wren (Pretty Little Liars), Maria/Miguel (Dexter), Veronica/Fiona (Shameless)

ESTJ x ENTJ: Zara/Diego (Dark Artifices series), Veronica/Svetlana (Shameless)

ESTJ x ENFP: Claire/Phil (Modern Family), Prudence/Sabrina (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)

ESTJ x ENTP: Wesley/Fred (Buffyverse), Cordelia/Xander (Buffyverse), Anya/Xander (Buffyverse), Lisa/Lucas (House MD), Prudence/Ambrose (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Kim/Jimmy (Better Call Saul), Michaela/Gabriel (How to Get Away With Murder)

ESTJ x INTJ: Wesley/Lilah (Buffyverse), Anya/Giles (Buffyverse), Lisa/House (House MD), Rachel/Bruce (Dark Knight Trilogy), Katie/Effy (Skins)

ESTJ x INFJ: Elliott/Olivia (SVU), Blair/Dan (Gossip Girl), Sif/Loki (MCU), Jack/Juliet (Lost), Michaela/Laurel (How to Get Away With Murder)

ESTJ x INFP: Hermione/Luna (Harry Potter series), Colette/Alfredo (Ratatouille), Beast/Belle (Beauty and the Beast, live action version), Sokka/Zuko (ATLA)

ESTJ x INTP: Anathema/Newt (Good Omens), Elle/Spencer (Criminal Minds), Camille/Arastoo (Bones)

[redsunhq]

         PLOT DROP #001 🌙* /  UNLUCKY STRIKE (pt. 1/2)

TESSA’S DIARY - ENTRY #124 ( CONT’D ) 

( . . . ) É como se uma nuvem de azar tivesse chovido sobre as nossas cabeças naquele pódio, e seus primeiros efeitos se materializado nas medalhinhas de prata reluzindo sobre os nossos peitos. 

         Falando em chuva, há dias que os céus não dão trégua. Quarta-feira passada perdi meu guarda-chuva e, desde então, tenho feito o caminho de volta para casa debaixo de um maço de cópias do jornal da universidade; chego completamente encharcada, evidentemente, e acordei hoje com o nariz escorrendo e os olhos inchados. Mas poderia ser pior. Poderia ter tido meus livros todos destruídos pela água, como aconteceu com a pobre da Sue Collins Pior ainda: ter o porão aqui de casa alagado, como o dos Radcliffe. E não para por aí — não sou de acreditar nesse tipo de coisa, mas não saberia definir o que tem acontecido com a galera da equipe senão como uma onda de azar. 

         . . . INFORMAÇÕES OOC !!

CONTEXTO: faz quase três semanas desde o torneio municipal de líderes de torcida, do qual o time da universidade de st. matthew saiu em segundo lugar. de todos os times universitários da cidade, o único a se classificar para o nível regional do campeonato foi o da universidade católica local, que levou a medalha de ouro... mesmo tendo competido com uma rotina mais fraca. o que ninguém sabe é que o time vencedor trapaceou — utilizou MAGIA para manipular a decisão dos jurados, assim como para sabotar os times adversários por meio de um ENCANTAMENTO DE AZAR, cujo efeito perdura até o momento atual.

🌙  /  EFEITO SOBRE CADA PERSONAGEM:            . . . Há 87% de chance de ANDREW KANG se esquecer de colocar o alarme para despertar no dia de uma prova. NICOLETTE JUNG tem 65% de chance de perder um item muito valioso para ela. A probabilidade de COLINE GRETA VAN DER GOHN ficar presa no elevador é de 79%. Há uma possibilidade de 46% de DALILAH MARIA BÔSCOLI ter um segredo revelado. ASHER FLOREL tem 94% de chance de se embaraçar na frente de sua classe. Há 76% de chance de NARCISSA N. HAWTHORNE ser pega passando/recebendo cola. A probabilidade de ÁGATA ALBERO acionar o alarme de incêndio dos dormitórios é de 55%. SURI ABBEY tem 68% de chance de derrubar algum líquido sobre o teclado do seu computador. Há uma possibilidade de 84% de DYLAN HUANGO perder um trabalho no dia que ele deve ser entregue. 🌙  /  OBSERVAÇÕES !!      . . . nosso primeiro plot drop será dividido em duas partes que serão desenvolvidas dentro de uma semana de duração cada. a primeira parte vai até sexta-feira que vem.      . . . neste primeiro instante os personagens ainda não sabem nada de bruxaria ou mágica ou que estão sob o efeito de um encantamento ( vem aí na segunda parte ).      . . . a gente incluiu o efeito do encantamento sobre cada personagem no formato de probabilidade porque isso dá a vocês, players, a liberdade de decidirem se a coisa descrita aconteceu ou quase aconteceu com seus personagens (por exemplo, se há uma chance de 76% de personagem x perder $50 -- eu posso fazer com que ele perca os $50 e não consiga comprar um presente de aniversário ‘pra sua namorada, ou somente imaginar que ele deixou cair o dinheiro e alguém o alertou). a ideia é que vocês possam incorporar essas sugestões dentro de plots! e vocês são mais do que bem-vindes para criarem suas próprias instâncias de azar para os seus personagens.       . . . divirtam-se !! 

[porlockstompf]

Reading de Nacht Reading 2019

                              my favourite books of the year

my overall favourite book of the year:

martin hägglund "this life why mortality makes us free" (2019)

postcyberpunkstompf:

01 ken liu (ed) "broken stars: contemporary chinese sf in translation" (2019)

02 cory doctorow "radicalized" (2019) 03 dave hutchinson "the return of the incredible exploding man" (2019)   + dave hutchinson "nomads" (2019)   + dave hutchinson "thumbprints" (1978)   + dave hutchinson "torn air" (1980)   + dave hutchinson "the push" (2009)   + dave hutchinson "the villages" (2002)   ... damn that elusive "paradise equation" (1981) ... 04 tade thompson "rosewater" (2016)   + tade thompson "rosewater insurrection" (2019)   + tade thompson "rosewater redemption" (2019) 05 desirina boskovich (ed) "lost transmissions: the secret history of sf & f" (2019)

06 hannu rajaniemi & jacob weisman (eds) "the new voices of science fiction" (2019) 07 gardner dozois (ed) "the very best of the best: 35 years of the year's best science fiction" (2019) 08 jonathan strahan (ed) "the best science fiction & fantasy of the year, volume thirteen" (2019) 09 robert markeley "kim stanley robinson modern masters of sf" (2019) 10 allan kaster (ed) "the year's top hard sf stories 3" (2019)

11 olivier girard (ed) "bifrost 96 la revue des mondes imaginaires: william gibson" (2019) 12 mario guglielminetti "web is over. parabola ed esplosione di ubuweb, l'antiprofilo" (2019) 13 bryan thomas schmidt (ed) "infinite stars: dark frontiers" (2019) 14 baoshu "the redemption of time" [2011] (2019) 15 cixin liu "the supernova era" [2003] (2019)

16 l. x. beckett "gamechanger" (2019) 17 gareth l powell "fleet of knives" (2019) 18 chen qiufan "waste tide" [2013] (2019) 19 derek künsken "the quantum garden" (2019) 20 gregory benford "rewrite: loops in the timescape" (2019)

21 james s.a. corey "tiamat's wrath" (2019)   + james s.a. corey "auberon" (2019) 22 jim al-khalili "sunfall" (2019) 23 peter f hamilton "salvation lost"  (2019) 24 neal asher "the warship" (2019) 25 jonathan strahan (ed) "mission critical" (2019)

26 jack mcdevitt "octavia gone" (2019) 27 elizabeth bear "ancestral night" (2019) 28 ian mcdonald "moon rising" (2019) 29 carmen maria machado (ed) "the best american sf & f 2019" (2019) 30 valerie valdes "chilling effect" (2019) 31 simon morden "bright morning star" (2019)      + s. j. morden "no way" (2019) 32 neil stephenson "fall or, dodge in hell" (2019) 33 graham edwards "string city" (2019)

klassikstompf:

01 arno schmidt "bottom's dream" [1970] (2016) ... & still reading ...

02 jorge luis borgès "borgès restored (the author's preferred translations)" (2016) 03 julie orringer "the flight portfolio" (2019)   + julie orringer "the invisible bridge" (2010) 04 pola oloixarac "savage theories" (2017)   + pola oloixarac "dark constellations" (2019) 05 simon critchley "memory theatre" (2014)

06 gabriel josipovici "hotel andromeda" (2014) 07 david keenan "for the good times" (2019) 08 wg sebald "vertigo" [1990] (1999)   + wg sebald "the emmigrants" [1992] (1996)   + wg sebald "the rings of saturn" [1995] (1998)   + wg sebald "austerlitz" (2001) 09 luis chitarroni "the no variations "diary of an unfinished novel" [2007] (2013) 10 julián ríos "larva: a midsummer night's babel" [1983] (1991)

11 césar aira "birthday" [2001] (2019)   + césar aira "three novels" [1990-2000-1997] (2018) 12 tom mole "the secret life of books" (2019) 13 lucy ives "loudermilk or the real poet or the origin of the world" (2019) 14 lászló krasznahorkai "baron wenckheim's homecoming" [2016] (2019) 15 lucy ellmann "ducks, newburyport" (2019)

16 lars iyer "nietzsche & the burbs" (2019) 17 d harlan wilson "the psychotic dr. schreber" (2019) 18 andrew gallix (ed) "we'll never have paris" (2019) 19 chris kelso (ed) "i transgress" (2019) 20 john crowley "the solitudes" [1987] (2007)   + john crowley "love & sleep" (1994)   + john crowley "daemonomania" (2000)   + john crowley "endless things" (2007) ... (the aegypt cycle)

polarstompf:

01 carlos ruiz zafón "the labyrinth of the spirits" [2017] (2018)

02 volker kutscher "the fatherland files" [2012] (2019) 03 andrea camilleri "the overnight kidnapper" [2015] (2019)   + andrea camilleri "the other end of the line" [2016] (2019) 04 mick herron "joe country" (2019)   + mick herron "this is what happened" (2018)   + mick herron "nobody walks" (2015) 05 john le carré "agent running the field" (2019)

06 guillaume musso "la vie secrète des écrivains" (2019) 07 luke mccallin "the man from berlin" (2013)   + luke mccallin "the pale house" (2014)   + luke mccallin "the divided city" (2016) 09 henry porter "brandenburg" [2005] (2019)   + henry porter "firefly" (2018)   + henry porter "white hot silence" (2019) 10 mitch silver "the bookworm" (2018)   + mitch silver "in secret service" (2007)

11 alan judd "the accidental agent" (2019) 12 philip kerr "metropolis" (2019) 13 ian rankin "westwind" (2019) 14 jo nesbø "the knife" (2019) 15 david hewson "devil's fjord" (2019)

16 barry forshaw "crime fiction: a reader's guide" (2019) 17 a.a. dhand "one way out" (2019) 18 martin holmén "clinch: the stockholm trilogy 01" (2016)   + martin holmén "down for te count: the stockholm trilogy 02" (2017)   + martin holmén "slugger: the stockholm trilogy 03" (2019) 19 michael kestemont "de zwarte koning" (2019) 20 soren sveistrup "the chestnut man" [2018] (2019)

21 tim mason "the darwin affair" (2019) 22 patrick conrad "good night, charlie" (2019) 23 chris pavone "the paris diversion" (2019) 24 dov aflon "a long night in paris" (2019) 25 arne dahl "hunted" [2017] (2019)

                                  RIP ANDREA CAMILLERI !

gedächtnisstompf:

01 martin hägglund "this life: why mortality makes us free" (2019) /                            "this life: secular faith & spiritual freedom" (2019)

02 derrida "la vie la mort: séminaire (1975-1976)" (2019) 03 jean-luc nancy "derrida, suppléments”  (2019) 04 jean-françois bouthors et jean-luc nancy "démocratie! hic et nunc" (2019) 05 hannah arendt "de vrijheid om vrij te zijn" (2019)      + hannah arendt "nous autres réfugiés" (2019)

06 mckenzie wark "capital is dead": is this something worse?" (2019) 07 johan schokker & tim schokker      "extimiteit: jacques lacan's terugkeer naar freud" (2000) 08 gerhard richter & ann schmock (eds) "give the word:      responses to werner hamacher's 95 theses on philology"    (2019) 09 ranja n gosh "philosophy & poetry: continental perspectives" (2019) 10 shoshana zuboff "the age of surveillance capitalism" (2019)

11 kate zambrano "screen tests: stories & other writing" (2019) 12 daniele carluccio "roland barthes lecteur" (2019) 13 jean-clet martin "la philosophie de gilles deleuze" (2019) 14 mitchell dean & daniel zamora  "le dernier homme et la fin de la révolution:          foucault après mai 68" (2019) 15 arnon grunberg "vriend & vijand: decadentie, ondergang & verlossing" (2019)

16 kwami anthony appiah      "de leugens die ons verbinden: een nieuwe kijk op identiteit" [2018] (2019) 17 quentin meillassoux "science fiction & extro-science fiction" (2015) 18 roberto calasso "het onbenoembare verleden" [2017] (2019) 19 lydia davis "essays" (2019) 20 denise riley "time lived, without its flow" (2019)

poesisstompf:

zoë skoulding "footnotes to water" (2019)

platterstompf:

01 rick moody "on celestial music, and other adventures in listening" (2012)

02 yann courtiau "frictions:   ce que la littérature a fait à la musique et ce que la musique a en a fait" (2019) 03 vivien goldman "revenge of the she-punks:      a feminist music history from poly styrene to pussy riot" (2019) 04 garrígos, triana & guerra "god save the queens: pioneras del punk" (2019) 05 jon savage "this searing light, the sun & everything else:      joy division the oral history" (2019)

06 richard beck "trains, jesus, and murder: the gospel according to johnny cash" 07 mark lanegan "sleevenotes" (2019) 08 jason williamson "jason williamson's house party: sleaford mods 2014-2019" (2019) 09 gallix, hill, & rose (eds) "love bites: fiction inspired by pete shelley" (2019) 10 greg laurie "johnny cash the redemption of an american icon" (2019)

11 marc vos & toon loenders "siglo xx:     opdat de dood ons levend vindt & het leven ons niet doodt" (2019) 12 david sandilands & david keenan "go ahead & drop the bomb      (memorial device pamflet)" (2019) 13 guillaume belhomme "pop fin de siècle" (2019) 14 chris bohn (ed) "the wire" (magazine) (2019) 15 sylvain sylvain "there's no bones in ice cream:      sylvain sylvain's story of the new york dolls" (2018)

16 debbie harry "face it" (2019) 17 jaime gonzalo "poder freak: una crónica de la contracultura vol III" (2014) 18 matthew bower & samantha davies "talisman angelical" (2017) 19 darryl w bullock "the world's worst records: an arcade of audio atrocity vol I" (2013)   + darryl w bullock "the world's worst records: another arcade of audio atrocity vol II" (2015) 20 steve zisson (ed) "a punk rock future" (2019) /      ivar muñoz-rojas "underground babilonia" (2019)

bilderstompf:

01 didier ottinger "bacon en toutes lettres" (2019)

02 antoni tàpies "cap braços cames cos" (2012)   + antoni tàpies "mahlerei und graphik" (2011) 03 laura oldfield ford "savage messiah" (2019) 04 fred vermorel "dead fashion girl: a situationist detective story" (2019) 05 françois schuiten & jaco van dormael "le dernier pharaon" (2019)

06 ken krimstein "the three escapes of hannah arendt: the tyranny of truth" (2018) 07 erik bindervoet & saskia pfaeltzer "aldus sprach nietzsche's zuster" (2019) 08 anthony n fragola & roch c smith "the erotic dream machine: interviews with alain robbe-grillet on his films" (2006)

cyclostompf:

01 bernard chambaz "petite philosophie du vélo" (2019)

02 filip osselaer "de man die doodging (vervolgens mosselen bestelde,      de rekening vroeg en verdween): el tarangu, josé manuel fuente" (2019) 03 peter schmink "de cultus van het lijden: een vrije oefening" (2006) 04 laurent willame "les lieux sacrés du cyclisme:     15 pélérinages à faire avant de crever" (2019) 05 jonas heyerick (ed) "bahamontes: uit liefde voor de stiel" [magazine] (2019)

06 johnny vansevenant "1969, het jaar van eddy merckx" (2019) 07 edwin winkels "la vuelta: heroïsche verhalen uit de ronde van spanje" (2019) 08 frederik baeckelandt "fausto coppi (les héros 04)" (2019) 09 harry pearson "the beast, the emperor & the milkman:      a bone-shaking tour through cycling’s flemish heartlands" (2019) 10 peter cossins "the yellow jersey / le maillot jaune" (2019)

11 thijs zonneveld "het panini album" (2019) 12 thijs zonneveld "de fiets, de fiets & nog veel meer sportverhalen" (2019) 13 willy vangenechten "hoe word je een wielerfan (en blijf je er een)?" (2019)

some wissenschaftstompf & autres divertissements ...:

01 robert macfarlane "underland: a deep time journey" (2019)

02 george van hal & ans hekkenberg "het kosmisch rariteitenkabinet" (2019) 03 josey waley-cohen "only connect: the difficult second quiz book" (2019)

… tsundoku !

may your home be safe from tigers, leroy, x HNY!

... the annual out of control TBR pile ...

postcyberpunkstompf

ada hoffmann "the outside" (2019) adrian tchaikovsky "children of ruin" (2019) alastair reynolds "shadow captain" (2019) + alastair reynolds "permafrost" (2019) annalee newitz "the future of another timeline" (2019) charlie jane anders "the city in the middle of the night" (2019) farah mendlesohn "the pleasant profession of robert a heinlein" (2019)gareth l powell "ragged alice" (2019) greg egan "perihelion summer" (2019) ian creasey "the shapes of strangers" (2019) jo walton "lent" (2019)

kameron hurley "the light brigade" (2019) karl schroeder "stealing words" (2019) megan o'keefe "velocity weapon" (2019) neil clarke (ed) "the eagle has landed: 50 years of lunar sf" (2019) nina allan "the silverwind" (2019) paul di filippo "aeota" (2019) peter swirski "stanislaw lem: philosopher of the future" (2019) + peter swirski & waclaw m osadnik (eds) "lemography: stanislaw lem in the eyes of the world" (2019) richard kadrey "the grand dark" (2019) rudy rucker "million mile road trip" (2019) simon ings "the smoke" (2019)

klassikstompf

alex landragin "crossings" (2019) enrique vila-matas "mac's problem" [2017] (2019) joseph scapellato "the made-up man" (2019) kevin breatnach "tunnelvision" (2019) michel houellebecq "serotonin" (2019) nell zink "doxology" (2019) roberto bolaño "the spirit of science fiction: a novel" (2019) samanta schweblin "mouthful of birds" (2019) sergio pitol "mephisto's waltz: selected short stories" (2019) will eaves "murmur" (2019)

polarstompf

johan op de beek "het complot van laken" (2019) jon steinhagen "the hanging artist" (2019) juli zeh "empty hearts" (2019) max hertzberg "operation oskar" (2019) + max hertzberg "berlin centre" (2019) peter robinson "many rivers to cross" (2019) tony belloto "bellini & the sphinx" [1995] (2019)

.

.

.

[jezabatlovesbats]

Jezabat's OC Ship Masterlist

I've got a list for this, too.

Swanna & Lee (best friends)

Imogen x Trey (romantic)

Waterlily & Shelltop & Spike (best friends)

Spike x Marcella (romantic)

Marcella & Cream (best friends)

Kira x The Tap-Dancing Butterfly (brief infatuation)

Unikitty x Mabel (romantic)

Calvin x Beatrice (romantic marriage)

Carmine x Meryl (romantic marriage)

Unear x Pericorn (romantic marriage)

May & Samuel (platonic marriage)

Lord Landlord/Jane (not married, but close partners)

Dairycone x Snowcorn (romantic marriage)

Jamison x Dawn (romantic marriage)

Angela & Christopher (platonic marriage)

Odetta x Siegfried (romantic marriage)

Phil/Armot (queerplatonic)

Moonlily x Nettle (marriage anarchy)

Snailtop x Clamilla (marriage anarchy)

Pierre x Elena (romantic marriage)

Yogurt x Meringue (romantic marriage)

Emilio x Xenia (romantic marriage)

Dave x Marlibut (romantic)

Arthur x Felicity (romantic marriage)

Benton x Carrie (romantic marriage)

Rover x Daisy (romantic/platonic marriage)

Estara x Luna (romantic marriage)

Annette x Honey (romantic) (depending on how old Honey is, I might change this)

Edgar x Agnes (romantic marriage)

Lorraine x Sylvester (romantic)

Lorraine & Geibi (best friends)

Lansing x Fia (romantic)

Alexander & Maria (best friends)

Cornelius & Lydia (best friends)

Sparky & Shine & DJ Flare (best friends)

Mother Nature x Father Time (romantic)

Trigger & Brutta (best friends)

Perry x the Mayor (romantic)

Ramona x Jayden (romantic)

Ramona & Jezabat & Tanoshii & Lena (best friends)

Ramona & Holly (best friends)

Tanoshii/Mackie (romantic)

Marisol & Jasper & Bella (best friends)

Lucius/Uriel/Chandler (queerplatonic)

Quinten & Cressida (platonic marriage)

Dove x ??? (romantic)

Dove & Asher (sibling-like best friends)

Hinotori/Grady (relationship anarchy)

Blue Lace Agate & Poppy Topaz (best friends)

Snowflake Obsidian/Black Opal (relationship anarchy)

Ellensburg Blue Agate/Blue Agate (marriage anarchy)

Sherry Topaz x Mulberry Topaz (romantic marriage)

Tom/Michalis (romantic marriage)

Gwen x Deirdre (romantic)

Blue Opal x Fiona (romantic marriage)

Harpy & Crowena (best friends)

Plume/Gilda (platonic marriage)

Georgette & Blush (best friends)

Mindy x Jasper (romantic marriage)

Sprixie King x Sprixie Queen (romantic marriage)

Sverkat x Almaznaya (romantic marriage)

Dozelia x Poppy (romantic)

Red x Jacklin (romantic)

Hari x Snip (romantic marriage)

Orion/Corona (platonic marriage)

Starlow & Goldry (best friends)

Astrielle x Leo (romantic marriage)

Xander x Iris (infatuation)

Eulalee x Puff (infatuation)

Bobbi & Dolly (best friends)

Sara/Eda (queerplatonic)

[bollywoodhits]

‘Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods’ Set Photo Shows New Look At Rachel Zegler’s Suit

A new photo from the set of Shazam!: Fury of the Gods revealed a new look at Rachel Zegler’s suit.

Production on the upcoming DC Extended Universe sequel Shazam!: Fury of the Gods continues, and we now have a brand new look at the suit of Rachel Zegler’s mystery character. We’ve previously had glimpses at the actress’s costume in other set photos, but we now have a closer look at her hairstyle, cape and boots.

‘Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom’: Jason Momoa Posts Video Before First Day On Set

You can check out this new set photo of Rachel Zegler’s costume for Shazam!: Fury of the Gods down below:

good night pic.twitter.com/2WxWl0YR3S

— darlene

(@bwaydarlene) July 18, 2021

Although the identity of her character remains undisclosed, Rachel Zegler’s character is believed by some to be a daughter of Atlas. This would potentially place her alongside the villainous roles of Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren as Hespera and Emmy Award-nominee Lucy Liu as Kalypso. Both Hespera and Kalypso are daughters of Atlas, the Greek titan whose stamina is one of the six major abilities represented in Shazam’s superpowers.

Rachel Zegler is set to make her film debut as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming adaptation of West Side Story, which hits theaters on December 10, 2021. She was also recently cast as Snow White in Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

What do you make of Rachel Zegler’s costume? Are you excited to see her alongside Zachary Levi and the rest of the cast for Shazam!: Fury of the Gods? Sound off in the comments below.

Here is the official synopsis for the first Shazam! movie:

We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quick.

Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam! stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans, and Djimon Hounsou.

Shazam! is available on Digital HD, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD, while Fury of the Gods will hit theaters on June 2, 2023. Keep it locked to Heroic Hollywood for all the latest on the upcoming film and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more video content!

Source: Twitter

The post ‘Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods’ Set Photo Shows New Look At Rachel Zegler’s Suit appeared first on Heroic Hollywood.

#bollywoodhits #bollywoodhitsin #celebrity # Read on : BollywoodHits.in

[foryourart]

Ana Victoria Jiménez (Mexican, b. 1941),  from the series Cuaderno de tareas (Assignment book), 1978-81Four sets of ten black-and-white photographs. 25 sheets: 10 × 6 1/2 in. (25.4 × 16.5 cm); 15 sheets: 6 1/2 × 10 in. (16.5 × 25.4 cm). Courtesy of Ana Victoria Jiménez. ©the artist. Image courtesy of the Hammer Museum. 

PLAN ForYourArt: December 7–13

Thursday, December 7

Winter Soiree, The Music Center (Downtown), 5:30pm. $2,500.

Family 1st Thursday: Installation Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 5:30–7:30pm.

Artist and scholar walkthroughs: Angela Lopez Ruiz, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 6pm.

Sculpture to Wear !ndelible, Kopeikin Galllery (Culver City), 6–9pm.

Paul Brach Lecture Series: Wizard Apprentice (Tieraney Carter), CalArts (Valencia), 6pm.

Graphic Design T-Shirt Show, CalArts (Valencia), 6–11pm.

David Alan Harvey: Capturing Cuba, Annenberg Space for Photography (Century City), 6:30–8pm.

GEORGE BALANCHINE'S THE NUTCRACKER, The Music Center (Downtown), 6:30pm. Through December 10.

Talk: Curator Walkthrough of "A Universal History of Infamy" with Rita Gonzalez, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7pm.

CraftNight: Papercraft A Holiday Workshop, Craft and Folk Art Museum (Miracle Mile), 7–9pm. $10.

at land’s edge presents Jimena Sarno, Southern California Library (South L.A.), 7–9pm.

Felipe Dulzaides and John Loomis on Havana's National Art Schools, LAMAG (East Hollywood), 7pm.

Rodney Bingenheimer "Santa's Got a GTO Vol. 2" LP and Gearhead Magazine Release Party, La Luz de Jesus Gallery (Los Feliz), 7–10pm.

ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS, MOCA Grand Avenue (Downtown), 7–9pm.

In Conversation: Lok Siu and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, California African American Museum (Downtown), 7pm.

SCREENINGS   Part of the series The Contenders 2017: Get Out, and Q&A with Jordan Peele, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Reading Series, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7:30–9:30pm.

Crotty Lecture - Christian Origins in Early Modern Europe: The Birth of a New Kind of History, The Huntington (San Marino), 7:30pm.

CalArts Winter Dance, CalArts (Valencia), 8:30pm. Also December 8.

Jazz Ensemble Concert, CalArts (Valencia), 10pm.

Friday, December 8

Conference: Globalizing the Protestant Reformations, The Huntington (San Marino), 8:30am.

Indigenous Knowledge and the Making of the Colonial Latin America, Getty Center (Brentwood), 9:30am–5pm.

Deconstructing Allusion II: Featuring Greg Miller, JoAnne Artman Gallery (Laguna Beach), 11am–5pm. 

Little Masters of Imagine Studio, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock (Eagle Rock), 5–9pm.

ARTIST APPEARANCE: THOMAS DEMAND, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 5:30pm.

Your Mouth A Constellation, JOAN (Mid-City), 7pm; performance, 7:30pm.

REGGAE ON THE BORDER: THE POSSIBILITIES OF A FRONTERA SOUNDSCAPE, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach), 7pm.

Film: An Evening With . . . Sam Esmail, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7:30pm.

REMATCH by Simone Forti & Carmela Hermann Dietrich, Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), 8:30pm. $20–25. Also December 9.

Bennie Maupin plays The Jewel and The Lotus (1974, ECM), REDCAT (Downtown), 8:30pm. $15–25.

Desert Soul Club, Mod Soul Funk Party, Tonga Hut (Palm Springs), 9pm–1am.

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, USC Pacific Asia Museum (Pasadena).

Saturday, December 9

Quiet Mornings: Art x Mindfulness, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Downtown), 9:30am.

Lecture: Herbert Cole on Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 11am.

A Step Back In Time, The Perfect Exposure Gallery (Koreatown), 11am–4pm. Continues December 10. 

Holiday Sale, White Lodge (Highland Park), 11am–4pm.

HOLIDAY BAZAAR SHOPPING EVENT, THERE-THERE GALLERY (Hollywood), 12–5pm.

L.A. Makers Pop-Up,  LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) (Hollywood), 12–7pm.

Holiday Marketplace, Self Help Graphics & Art (Downtown), 12–5pm.

Quema Del Diablo Music and Arts Festival, Joshua Tree Retreat Center / Center of Mentalphysics (Joshua Tree), 12pm.

Sun and Shadow: Imagining Los Angeles and Mexico City, ca. 1950, lecture by architectural historian Keith Eggener, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

The Art Of Creative Manifestation And Entrepreneurialism, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 1–4pm. $24–30.

Queer Werkout with Nicola Bullock and Sarah Bouars, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 1–3pm. $15–20.

MFA Open Studios, UC Riverside (Riverside), 1–5pm.

PST: Video Art in Latin America – Curator Walk Through and Screening, LAXART (Hollywood), 2pm; screening, 3:30pm.

Gingerbread House Workshop, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 2–4pm. $10.

Around the Table: Recipes and Stories from The Lark SB, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 2pm.

Artist talk: Katie Crown: Watercolors and Joan Wynn: Alive, TAG Gallery (Santa Monica), 3pm.

M E G A  P H O T O B O O K  S A T U R D A Y!, Arcana Books on the Arts (Culver City), 3–7pm.

37th Annual Black Doll Show, William Grant Still Arts Center (West Adams), 3–6pm.

Michael Queenland, Kristina Kite Gallery (Mid-City), 3–5pm.

1ST CHILDREN’S HOLIDAY GALA, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach), 3–6pm.

plant spirit meditation ceremony with tea infusions, Five Car Garage (Santa Monica), 4–5pm.

Terry Leness: Sunshine Muse and Jennifer Bain: A Palimpsest of Time and Place, Lia Skidmore Contemporary Art (Santa Monica), 4–6pm.

Brass Ensemble Concert, CalArts (Valencia), 4–6pm.

Betty Sheinbaum: An Artist, TAG Gallery (Santa Monica), 5–8pm.

Graduate Open Studios, UCLA Graduate Studios (Culver City), 5–8pm.

There is Only One Paul R. Williams, WUHO - Woodbury University Hollywood Outpost (Hollywood), 6pm.

Holiday Echo Park Craft Fair, Mack Sennett Studios (Silver Lake), 6–9pm. Also December 10.

THE ARTYSSEY, Skid Row History Museum & Archive (Downtown), 6–8pm.

SOUTHLAND ENSEMBLE FLUXUS : CONSTRUCTION, Automata (Chinatown), 8pm. $15.

Lou Harrison, Music of the Pacific, REDCAT (Downtown), 8:30pm. $15–25.

Experimental Futures: Alex Wand, Cari Stevens, Molly Allis, Justin Asher, Human Hemingway, OOLA, Pieter (Linoln Heights), 8:30–10pm.

Sunday, December 10

Getting Real With Money, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 10am–1pm. Also December 17.

CREATE: A Comedy of Hands/Una comedia de manos, ESMoA (El Segundo), 10am–1pm.

HANUKKAH FESTIVAL LA/LA, Skirball Cultural Center (Brentwood), 11am–4pm.

Nutcracker: The Motion Picture and Where the Wild Things Are, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 11am.

THERE-THERE AND FORYOURART CERAMICS SUNDAY, there-there (Hollywood), 11am–3pm.

COMMUNITY HOLIDAY FESTIVAL, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach), 11am–5pm.

Holiday & Cookie Time, 356 Mission (Downtown), 12–5pm.

Tow Truck Towing a Tow Truck, haphazard/ as-is.la (Downtown), 1–5pm.

Performance and Open House, Side Street Projects (Altadena), 1–4pm.

Upcycled Instrument-Making Workshop with Guillermo Galindo and JR Thomason A CraftLab Family Workshop!, Craft and Folk Art Museum (Miracle Mile), 1:30–3:30pm. $5–7.

Studio Sunday on the Front Steps, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 1:30–4:30pm.

Free The Voice!, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 2pm. $32–40.

Lecture - Cochineal in the History of Art and Global Trade, The Huntington (San Marino), 2:30pm.

Talk: The Thirtieth Annual Michele and Peter Berton Memorial Lecture on Japanese Art: Bachelors' Passions and Ladies' Crazes: The Gender of Japanism, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 3:30pm.

Performing Wellness With Deborah Seabrook, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 8–10pm. $10–20.

Guitars @ CalArts, CalArts (Valencia), 8–10pm.

Studio: Fall 2017, REDCAT (Downtown), 8:30pm. Through December 11.

El Segundo Holiday Parade, various locations (El Segundo).

Monday, December 11

Holiday Music: Vox Feminae, The Huntington (San Marino), 1–2pm.

SCREENINGS   Part of the series The Contenders 2017: Lady Bird, and Q&A with Greta Gerwig, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Neighborhoods For All: Tenants’ Rights, Community Participation, & Housing Justice, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7:30–9:30pm.

Tuesday, December 12

Finding Form and Robert Polidori: 20 Photographs of the Getty Museum, 1997, Getty Center (Brentwood), 10am–5:30pm. 

Film: Nocturne, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

LAND Annual Holiday Moveable Feast, Carmencita (Hollywood), 6–9pm. $75.

SCREENINGS   Part of the series The Contenders 2017: The Big Sick, and Q&A with Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, and Michael Showalter, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Wednesday, December 13

Pierre Fatumbi Verger: Mensageiro Dois Mundos, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 7–9pm.

Community Generated Safety—How it works in Gladys Park and Holiday Party, Skid Row History Museum & Archive (Downtown), 7pm.

In Conversation: Thelma Golden and Gary Simmons, California African American Museum (Downtown), 7pm.

How To Have Hard Conversations: Step 2, Constructive Conflict Communication at Work, Home and Everywhere In Between, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7–10pm. $16–20.

SCREENINGS   Part of the series The Contenders 2017: The Florida Project, and Q&A with Willem Dafoe and Sean Baker, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

[extasiswings]

“I am burning in stars/I am feverishly filled with stars.” Asher/Maria

Perhaps I am IMPOSSIBLY SOFT for them.

At first, Maria passes it off as just the winter.  If she is cold, if she is constantly tired, that’s only because even when it isn’t snowing or raining, the sun isn’t out for long enough for it to be helpful.  If she’s overly emotional at times, that’s only because Asher keeps being sent away on secret assignments that he can’t discuss and she misses him and worries.  If she gets nauseous sometimes...well, there’s been a stomach bug going around the neighborhood.

There’s an explanation for everything.  And it’s easy to look at each piece in isolation than in the aggregate.

She’s at Asher’s mother’s house when it finally comes together.  Katya is in the kitchen preparing dinner as Maria works on sewing up a hole in the pocket of a pair of pants.  A perfectly normal evening.

Until the smell of fish hits Maria’s nose and she barely makes it to the bathroom before she loses the contents of her stomach.  A moment later, she feels her mother-in-law’s hands, Katya humming sympathetically as she strokes Maria’s hair and presses a cool cloth to the back of her neck.

Maria is about to blame the Novak children from the end of the road for getting her sick, when Katya says—

“How far along are you?”

—and Maria goes utterly still.  

Her mind rapidly cycles through the last two months—the fatigue, the nausea, the mood swings—and settles on the most glaring symptom that she missed.  When was the last time she—?

“At least two months,” she says, her voice strangely far away to her own ears as she sits back on the floor, her hand fluttering absently over her stomach.  Katya smiles and gently squeezes Maria’s shoulder before stepping back.

“I’ll make you some tea.  And then we’ll talk, yes?”

“Okay.”

Later that night, as she lays in bed alone, Maria stares at the ceiling and thinks about Gabriel.  

The next few days pass in a daze.  Maria swings between elation and heart-stopping terror—she wants to laugh, she wants to dance, and yet also weep, wail, run away.  She feels as if her feelings are too strong and varied for her body to contain, a supernova trapped under her skin.

Finally, Asher returns.  And Maria—

“Are you okay, love?”  He asks between kisses, unable to calm her roving hands as she tugs at his clothes.

“I just missed you,” she replies, and there are no more words for some time.

—well, she sees no reason not to put her nervous energy to better use.

After, she curls around him in bed, resting her head on his shoulder and tracing stray patterns on his chest.  Outside, a storm rattles the windows, and Asher’s arms tighten around her.

“Where are you?”  He murmurs, pressing his lips to her hair.  “You seem...far away.”

Maria swallows and lifts her head to kiss him properly.  

“I’m here, I promise,”  she says.  “I just...I have something to tell you.  And I’m not sure how.”

Asher cups her cheek, his thumb sweeping across her cheekbone.  

“You can tell me anything,”  he assures.  “No matter what.”

Maria bites her lip as her fingers trace the lines of his collarbone.

“Tell me you love me.”

Asher’s mouth curves up.  “I love you.”

“I’m pregnant.”  The words escape her in a rush, the first time she’s officially said them aloud this time around.  And for that moment, as Asher goes still beneath her, the terror vanishes in the surge of overwhelming joy that follows.

“You’re—”  Asher sits fully up, his eyes wide.

Maria nods, then squeaks as he pulls her in and kisses her fiercely.  

“Sorry,”  he pants when he pulls away, releasing her only for his hands to hover by her waist like he isn’t sure whether she’s too delicate to touch.  “Sorry, I—is this—can I—?”

Maria laughs as she sways in to kiss him again.  

“You’re happy then?”  She asks once they’ve settled once more.

Asher shakes his head, but rushes to clarify before her stomach can drop.

“There is no word in any language I know that can adequately express how I feel,”  he says.  “It far exceeds happy, it is—it’s as if I’ve been filled with stars, too bright to look at, too vast to truly know.”

Maria smiles and cuddles closer.  “I’ll take it.”